Collection Overview

Arrangement: The collection is arranged by series and sub-series, the material was received by Kansas State University in this original arrangement. There are 10 series: Governmental Agencies and Baking, Eat More Wheat Campaign, Bakers, Consumer Surveys, Food Faddists, AIB, National Defense of WWII, Vietnam War, and Korean War, and the United States Senate. Any oversized material fits within these series and is organized as such.

Scope and Contents of the Materials

The American Institute of Baking, renamed AIB International, has been in operation since 1919. This collection maintains the information regarding the American Institute of Baking from their first year of operation to as late at 1998. A significant section of the information is in regards to the policies, regulation, and national defense during war times (WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War, 1941-1963) and well as to governmental agencies during non-war times. Printed publications make up another large portion of the collection, including consumer surveys, news publications, and magazine articles in regards to baking and selling baked goods in North America, consumer buying habits and surveys, and published materials about cereal. Additional materials are available about backing schools both in the United States and abroad. Notable events that are documented within the collection are the “Eat More Wheat” campaign of the mid 20s, the years of house-to-house sales during the early 30s, the opposition of baking institutions by food faddists such as Carlton Fredericks and Gaylord Hauser, and published congressional records regarding nutrition and health from 1974. Within the collection, there is one box of oversized material, including documentation from several different series. Additionally, a few posters from World War II, a wall chart, a poster about cereal grains, and a food consumption poster are separated from the collection due to size.

Biographical Note

The American Institute of Baking, now known as AIB International, has been in operation since 1919. The current mission of AIB International reflects their original mission and states to “protect the safety of the food supply chain and grain based production capabilities”. Today, the AIB International School of Baking is closely aligned with the Kansas State University Department of Grain Science and accreditation of AIB is through its affiliation with Kansas State University along with a regional accreditation through the North Central Association of Schools and additional accreditation through the International Association for Continuing Education and Training. Several departments are included at AIB International, the School of Baking is only one of them. Others include, Auditing Services, Food Safety Education, and Research and Technical Options. Two of the most common focus courses at AIB are the baking technologist course (16 weeks) and the maintenance engineering course (11 weeks). AIB International is unique in its offering of the maintenance engineering course, in that the school looks more closely at the technical side of baking, including research, development, and the mechanics of the kitchen rather than solely at baking and baking techniques.

AIB Headquarters was relocated from Chicago, IL in 1978 to Bakers Way in Manhattan, Kansas. This was a large move for the institution and included the movement of their research library that housed this collection prior to its donation. The AIB International research library, originally named the Louis Livingston Library, was founded in 1927 and renamed the Ruth M. Emerson Library in 1984 in honor of Miss Emerson’s 37 years served as its librarian. Ruth Emerson held degrees in both food science and library science and left an enduring legacy to the baking industry by “…initiating the development of a system that she called her ‘non-electronic computer’, which was a massive author-title-subject card index to articles, formulations, patents, and all types of other baking and food science information…” held within the research library (Wirtz, p.108). In December of 2014, the library’s physical space was downsized and closed to the public. It was at this time that portions of their collection were donated to the Morse Department of Special Collections at Hale Library, Kansas State Libraries. The remainder of the collection is still retained by AIB International for internal staff use.

Administrative Information

Repository:
Morse Department of Special Collections

Use Restrictions:
The researcher assumes full responsibility for observing all copyright, property, and libel laws as they apply.